Lance Foster faced the morning sun outside the building where he used to stop after school to buy penny candy and comic books.

Pointing across the street, he grinned remembering an old grocery store, then turned an eye on the laundromat where his mother once washed the family's clothes.

The candy shop, grocery store and laundromat are gone now -- home to other businesses and 21st Century ventures.

Yet signs of the past are all around, and by turning a keen eye toward the obscure, old Helena begins to emerge like the single flower growing behind the old Breckenridge feed and flour shop.

"Helena has changed a lot, but Rodney Street hasn't," Foster said. "Most of the buildings are still here, but what happens inside them has changed."

The Rodney Street district, perched upon the hill overlooking Last Chance Gulch, will be the focus of a new Helena walking tour this summer.

The tour, which starts next week, marks an ongoing effort to bring attention to what some call Helena's own little Soho, and one of the city's most overlooked -- and most eclectic -- historic neighborhoods.

It's a neighborhood Foster knows well, having grown up on Beattie Street to attend Bishop Gilmore School.

After class and before heading home, Foster often stopped in at the Rodney Street News for candy and the occasional comic book.

Through all its changes, the district remains a vibrant hub of activity. And while Helena struggles with growth and how to manage it, the Rodney Street district faces its own unique challenges.

"There's a lot of pressure on Helena right now," Foster said. "I think we need to stop and think about what makes Helena, Helena. A lot of this stuff is from the 1880s. It's one of the oldest parts of town."

The district also represents one of the first urban planning areas in Montana, one that traces its roots back to 1864.

Most of the neighborhood, Foster notes, is centered around the courthouse, which lost its clock tower in the 1935 quake.

Foster, along with historian and artist Dennis McCahon, will lead the one-hour tours, talking about the legends, ghost stories, architecture, and the people that color the district.

Over the years, the neighborhood has hosted a number of fabled personalities, including L. Ron Hubbard, Gary Cooper and Myrna Loy.

A scout for George Armstrong Custer lived here, as did Louis Riel, a Canadian politician who founded the province of Manitoba, and then led a rebellion to preserve the rights of the Métis people.

Even Ted Kaczynski stayed here for awhile, locked up in the county jail immediately following his 1996 arrest in Lincoln.

"There's all kinds of characters who have lived around here," Foster said. "We'll also focus on the neighborhood, and understanding what you see."

Signs of the past lie scattered throughout the district, and Foster is quick to point them out.

Ghost art on the side of the feed shop still colors the weathered red bricks. An old wooden hoist teeters above a top-floor window. A stamp remembering the Rodney Street Hotel holds one street corner.

Other stories include an alleged UFO sighting at Sixth and Rodney in the 1950s, the history of Catholic Hill, and the mysteries surrounding the Granite Hotel, which burned down in the 1980s, Foster said.

"It was nice coming back and getting to know Helena the way it was, and seeing things that were familiar to me again," he said.

Find out more

To find out more about this and other tours, call the Lewis and Clark County Historic Preservation Commission at 447-8357, or log on to www.helenahistory.com

The commission also offers information on self-guided tours of Last Chance Gulch, Helena's historic Westside neighborhood, and Courthouse Square.

The information is available at the Lewis and Clark County Heritage Center on the Downtown Walking Mall.

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or mkidston@helenair.com.